Is there a link between sleep breathing and depression?

Do you know how well you sleep? If you do, you’d be one of the few, because after all, we can’t observe ourselves when we are asleep. But, sleep breathing issues can be a possible cause of depression according to Dr. Paul Peppard from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

1,400 Wisconsin adults were measured for up to 16 years to determine why some subjects seemed more depressed than usual. Every four years during that entire period, the subjects:

— Spent a night at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s sleep lab
— Completed a depression questionnaire
— Reported any medicines they were taking, including antidepressants

Slight to heavy sleep breathing episodes predicted depressive behavior according to the study. When looking at study participants who experienced no breathing problems during sleep, those with moderate or worse breathing problems during normal sleep were 2.6 times more likely to become depressed during the study. If you or a family member seem depressed for some unknown reason, it may not be a bad idea to have sleep habits checked out for unknowns. At least, this is the moral of this particular story I would think.

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